Over the last 20 years, Harry Potter has impacted millions of us, crossing time and generations when doing so.

How many of us have grown up wishing to be a wizard and waiting for our letter from Hogwarts? I bet that right now, somewhere in the world, there’s a kid dreaming about the wizarding world, wishing to be a part of it.

Magic aside, the series taught us some most important things that we need to focus on in our life. From the first book and until the most recent movies, there’s always a new lesson about responsibility and leadership.

Haven’t you noticed it?

Here are some 4 lessons I learnt with Harry Potter:

1. Leaders are made, they are not born

As an infant, Harry survived an attack by Lord Voldemort, and acquired fame as “The Boy Who Lived”.

He grew up without knowing any of that and, when he entered the wizarding world, he was surprised to know the legends about him and how heroic everyone considered him. Despite this, he remained grounded and was always seeking to learn and gain more knowledge, rather than just taking a heroic status that was gifted upon him by others.

In the end, Harry owned his title as a hero through his own actions and leadership skills, right?

He didn’t accept that it was his responsibility to be a hero because of people telling him that. Instead, he made it his responsibility because he saw the importance of his actions and decisions.

A true leader is not told to be a leader, but they just can’t stand in front of injustice and do nothing. They have strong values, as Harry had.

We can see this change also in many other characters, such as Neville Longbottom.

Starting as a modest child with low confidence, Neville mishandled his way through secondary school, once in a while leaving a positive impact on anybody he met with.

For several times he showed purpose and bravery. Because of his own strong will to evolve during the years that he spent in Hogwarts, Neville could grow a lot in confidence. He assumed an instrumental part in the last Clash of Hogwarts, again showing that leaders are made, not born.

2. Knowing its own strengths it’s a big step in leadership

In Harry’s 5th year at Hogwarts, the school goes through hard changes in its rules and class schedules. This happened because the Ministry of Magic didn’t want young wizards talking about the return of Voldemort. It was pure censorship.

Most of the students were angry at the new policies, as they felt powerless and vulnerable without the chance to learn Defence Against the Dark Arts in such uncertain times.

Hermione took the lead and proposed the arrangement of a secret study group. She knew how Harry had a lot of practical knowledge in Defence Against the Dark Arts, due to his past experiences with Voldemort, and suggested him (not to say pushed) to lead the Dumbledore’s Army (D.A.).

That’s where Harry got really aware about his potential.

Maybe he would never have accepted that if Hermione didn’t tell it to his face. Sometimes you just need someone telling you: “you should do this because you’re good at it”.

And thanks Hermione for that,  after all, leadership is a lot about how well you know yourself, right?

3. True leaders inspire others to be better

Dumbledore’s Army began with the aim of being a place to study and practise magic, going against the new wave of authority at Hogwarts, but it ended up filling a substantially bigger need.

The students who went to D.A. gatherings where the people who needed to learn and enhance their magic, and they built up their aptitudes at a quick rate through Harry’s direction.

Later that year, when a battle was approaching, Harry was prepared to fight without anyone else. He felt it was his responsibility alone and that he couldn’t ask anyone to risk themselves.

But a good leader makes people feel capable and empowered. Hence, Neville stood up and said that the whole D.A. should go to, as this was their opportunity to fight and to be a part of something bigger than themselves.

By role modelling courage and bravery, and putting time into building up his companions, Harry could enable and empower different leaders. After Harry fled Hogwarts, years later, Neville assembled and led a new D.A.,  preparing them to face the last battle at Hogwarts.

This is a true sign of effective leadership – by empowering his followers, Harry helped new leaders to come up.

4. No one can lead alone

Harry, Hermione and Ron are regularly admired for how complementary they are and how solid their bond is. The trio shows how the best leaders are the individuals who centre around their qualities.

Aren’t they just friendship goals?

Harry never hesitates to speak his mind, he makes the team be fearless and talk about ‘unspeakable’ things. He is confident and free, ready to trust in his abilities in face of troubles and huge difficulties.

He‘s also driven by an inborn need to put things right.

Hermione is a supplier and an anchor. She is ingenious and mindful and adopts an exceptionally even minded strategy. As opposed to Harry, she’s able to control her impulses and think things through before acting, something that comes in hand many times, when others couldn’t think properly.

Ron, in the meantime, ties the gathering together with his feeling of loyalty and brotherhood. His benevolence and will to help other people, even if shown in the goofiest way, is just lovely.

5. Leaders don’t close their eyes to the issues around them

During the entire Harry Potter series, Harry and his friends were always concerned about the issues Hogwarts was going through. They were willing to anything at risk the course of exploring the problems and looking for solutions, always keeping in mind the safety of the other students.

They just couldn’t close their eyes when something seemed wrong.

That’s how true leaders are, right? Our world is our Hogwarts and we have to learn about the issues that it is facing now.

After all, we are the one, who have to stand-out, like these incredible wizards, and take action to make our life legen-wait for-it-Dary!

Let’s take the first step and be a Wizard of change in the world full of muggles?

Let us know in the comments if you ever did some magic to make the world a better place!
We’d love to know it 🙂

If you like this post you may also like: “Things we wish the school would have taught us”.

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Written by

Anisha Bhawanani is graduated in Marketing and Finance and loves writing. She is a happy go lucky girl with a head full of dreams, very passionate about traveling and exploring different cultures. One day she wants to win a man booker prize.